Engineering Director

The Job in shortAs an Engineering Director at Backbase, you will lead a multi-project engineering organization delivering complex digital banking solutions for leading financial institutions in the Middle East region. You are accountable for building a high-performing engineering organization that consistently delivers predictable, high-quality software while developing future engineering leaders.This is not only a delivery leadership role. You are expected to continuously improve how engineering operates by introducing modern engineering practices, scaling engineering excellence across teams and driving AI-assisted software development.You will lead Engineering Managers and Technical Leaders across multiple customer engagements, balancing customer success, engineering quality and organizational growth.

Meet the job● Lead and grow an engineering organization of 100+ engineers across multiple customer programs.● Coach, develop and raise the bar for Engineering Managers through regular mentoring, feedback and performance management.● Drive engineering excellence by improving delivery predictability, quality, developer experience, operational readiness and engineering metrics.● Establish consistent engineering governance, release readiness, architecture and quality practices across multiple teams.● Partner with customers, Delivery Managers, Technical Leaders, Architects and Product leadership to build trusted engineering relationships and resolve complex delivery challenges.● Build a culture of ownership, accountability, continuous improvement and technical excellence.● Lead engineering transformation through adoption of AI-native development practices, Agentic SDLC, automation and modern platform capabilities.● Develop engineering capability for the region through hiring, succession planning, technical communities and career development.

What success looks likeYou build an organization where:● Engineering Managers grow into exceptional leaders.● Teams deliver predictably with a balance of quality.● Engineering decisions are driven by data.● Customers trust engineering commitments.● AI measurably improves engineering productivity and quality.● Engineering standards scale consistently across projects and teams.● Difficult organizational changes are implemented when required to improve long-term outcomes.

How about you● Proven experience leading multiple engineering teams (50+ engineers) through Engineering Managers.● Experience operating large-scale software delivery organizations across multiple concurrent projects.● Strong understanding of modern software engineering practices including architecture governance, CI/CD, testing strategies, observability, operational excellence and engineering metrics.● Demonstrated success building and coaching engineering leadersExperience leading organizational transformation and driving measurable engineering improvements.● Strong customer-facing leadership with the ability to build trust while navigating difficult delivery situations.● Hands-on understanding of AI-assisted software engineering, developer tooling and Agentic SDLC with the ability to pragmatically introduce these practices across engineering organizations.● Excellent communication skills with both executive stakeholders and engineering teams.● Bias for ownership, continuous improvement and data-driven decision making.

Leadership principles● Engineering Directors at Backbase:● Build leaders.● Measure outcomes, not activity.● Solve systemic problems rather than local optimizations.● Raise engineering quality without slowing delivery.● Challenge the status quo and continuously improve how engineering works.● Embrace AI as an engineering multiplier while maintaining strong engineering fundamentals.